… Sunday. At least where pibbur is staying, and pibbur is at the moment staying in Boston@Massachusetts@US. Or - according to the hotel - Cambridge which of course is not Cambridge as we know it, so he's a little bit confused. But he came to Boston from Amsterdam last Friday, and after spending 1 1/2 hour to get through border control and customs and the Taxi queue it took only 20 minutes to get to the hotel. Anyhow. Pibbur is once again in the US. Which means that once again he's exposed to badly designed toilets. They're to low, and the water level is too high, which implies an increased risk of unfortunate collisions and means that he has to redesign his toilet procedures. And of course test them thoroughly. You don't want bugs when going to the restroom. Why?

Other things? Well, today is National Day in Saudi Arabia. And Celebrate Bisexuality Day - probably not in Saudi Arabia.

And…

1122 - Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agrees on something. After which - and you know this is important for roman emperors - he lived for another 2 1/2 years, which - for roman emperors - is quite an achievement.

1338 – The Battle of Arnemuiden, the first naval battle using artillery as the british ship Cristofer was equipped with 3 canons and a hand gun. That didn't impress them (the French) much as they totally pwned he brits.

1641 - 1 billion dollars and 500,000 pieces of eight were lost at sea, never to be found - yet.

1779 – USS Bonhomme Richard led by Led Zeppelin basist pwns the british outside Yourkshire (which apparently IS Yorkshire as we know it).

… independence day and pibbur's fourth day in Cambridge-by-Boston. (Boston in the US, that is).

On this very day:

768 – Death of Pippin, the hobbit.

1180 - Manuel Komnenos, the last Byzantine emperor dies. Contrary to your average Roman emperor he stayed in business for much longer than a year (37 years actually). 12th century. Was Corwin around then?

2005 - Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating Beaumont and moving him to Kingsmouth.

The Fox says vulpes in latin, raposa in portugues, doplan in orcish, woo lay in chinese, renar in volapyk, fox=CREATEOBJECT("fox") in foxpro, fox in UK english, no word for it in Kobaian, kettu in finnish, sionnach in gaelic, rusc in Sindarin, byakko, furudanuki, furukitsune, gingitsune, kitsune, shirogitsune, shirubaafokksu and umisen'yamasen in japanese.

This thread started May 28th 2010 with celebrating the Turing day (May 28th).

Today is the day after Alan Turing was officialy pardoned for his "crimes" (homosexual activity) for which he was sentenced to chemical castraction (the alternative was imprisonment) back in 1952. Yesterday Queen Elizabeth ver. 2.0 signed the "royal prerogative of mercy", nearly 60 years after he committed suicide.

pibbur who once again reminds the watch that he once constructed a Turing machine using MS Excel.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

18th of January, and the day after pibbur followed the advice of the ninja and went to Texas, San Antonia.

It's also the day in
.
350 when Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself emperor. As we all now, rising to empirehood in Rome is in general a bad idea, something M. came to regret when he died in 353.

474 when seven year old Leo became Byzanthinian emperor Leo II. Turns out, which became apparent after 10 months, that Byzantinian emperors don't fare much better than the Roman ones.

1126 when chinese emperor Huizong resigned. Although his rule, for some reason, lasted for 26 years, the curse of emperorhood did not fail, according to Wikipedia, his last year in office "marked a period of disaster for Son China".

1778 when James Cook became the first human to dscover the Sandwich Islands aka Hawaii. Oops, sorry, he became the first known European human discovereing said slands. After this, people have discovered the islands again and again and again…. and again.

1871 when Wilhelm becomes emperor Wilhelm version 1. Apparently, based on his 17 years in office, the emperor curse don't travel that far north.
P
1997 when Břrge Ousland of Norwegian persuation became the first human to cross the Antarctic alone and unaided. Come to think of it, there have been a lot of world records connected to skiing very very down under. We had the fist team (Norwegian) reaching the south pole, the first team coming too late, the first female reaching the pole, the first person lacking one arm, the first lawyer, and … ókpibbur considers becoming the first person crossing the continent without any training.

Significant first time appearances:
1896 An X-Ray emitting macine
1903 Transatlantic Radio
1946 Wrestler Perro Aguayo (allegedly)
1984 Benji
1977 Legionella pneumoniae
1980 MR Peppers, american football player. Now, is he an American fooball player, or is he an American American footbal player?
2005 The mighty A380

pibbur who notices that the toilets in San Antonio is, unlike any other toilet he's visited in the US is appropriately sized, with the seat positioned at a biologically suffient height. Additionaly the water level in said toilet isd, again unlike any other toilet he's visited in the US, is non intrusive to the lower parts of his body. There are BTW about 20000 googles for pibbur, but more than 800000 for pibbur and toilets.

… pibbur's second day in San Antonio and pibbur has made an observation: (BTW, Observation is one of the Act classes in HL7, classCode="OBS", in case you didn't want to know that): Americans aren't built like normal people (those living in the northern part of Europe). This is based on indirect evidence, the relation between height of chairs, and heights of tables. No matter how much pibbur tries to elevate the chairs he's using, the table surface stays no more than 10 cm (I refuse to translate those bautiful SI units) below his shoulders. Which result in very awkward movements when it comes to writing, typing, eating, come to think of it anything which can sensibly be done at a table. Since it's like this here and there and everywhere over there, it can only mean they're built to handle it. Pibbur will pay close attention to american anatomy in the upcoming days.

Other things of little interest

1840 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming (somewhat unsuccessfully?) what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States. The observant reader will remember that yesterday's post mentioned people going to the south pole, in stead of just - like said Wilkes - orbiting it from a safe distance. In other words, nothing to write home about in pibburs NSHO.

1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising. One small step for a man, one somewhat smaller step for mankind.

1915 – Not a whole lotta love as German zeppelins went on a bombing raid in the UK.

1953 – 71.7% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. I choose to say no more, know what I mean? Do you? If you don't, I suggest you watch the movie "Rat Race".

1977 – Hell freezes over as snow falls in Miami, Florida. According to Wikipedia the only time in recorded history of the city that snow has fallen

1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced and in 1986: The first IBM PC computer virus. Some, who we don't listen to, may say there is a lesson to be learned here.

2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto. After merely 9 years of flight, expected time of arrival is july 2015, around the time Torment and Fallout 4 (and Grimoire?) can be expected. Coincidence?

pibbur who from the very flat horizons of the US misses his mountains. And who is a bit pizzled that nothing bad happened to roman and a few other selected emperors on this very day.

Not much spare time, I'm afraid. I'm taking another certification (the HL7 RIM test which I assume you all know about, so I see no reason to explain it *evil laughter*). So i've got a thing or two to read. But my hotel is close to the Riverwalk, so most likely I will find the time.

0393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year old son Honorius co-emperor. We all though that in general Acts (one of the core classes in HL7) like this are not particularly sound, because the relationship (another HL7 core class) between an act like this and an act involving violent death of the participants (yet another HL7 core class) is likely. However, while none of them lived very long (48 and 29 years), their role (another core class) as emperor lasted for a fairly long period. And they both died of (for roman emperors) unnatural causes, disease.

1368 – In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries. His role as an emperor lasted for 30 years. However, as a LivingSubject Entity(yeat another core class) he lasted for 69 years.

1571 – The Royal Exchange, which despite the name does not involve exchanging royals opens in London.

1793 - The second, in a long rage of partitions takes place in Poland, which probably is not Poland as we (europeans, of course) know it.

1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction. This may or may not be true, but since it makes fun of the US, I didn't bother to check the facts.

1960 - Down with the Trieste!!!

1997 – Greek Serial Killer Antonis Daglis is sentenced to thirteen consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years for the serial slayings of three women and the attempted murder of six others. Given that the average life expectancy of greek males are 77.59 years, he will be released some time in the year 3047. Or in 2696, if he's released after spending 2/3 of the sentence behind bars.

Notable first time appearances
1950 - The man who can make bombs using haywire, some youghurt, a screwdiver and conveniently available pieces of NO3 containing rocks. No, it's not Chuck Norris. (His birhtday is in March, and he's 10 years too old)

… also the day pibbur passed the HL7 V3 RIM Specialist certification test.
And the missing class was of course RoleLink.

pibbur who learned that in the HL7 community he goes under the nickname: "Friendly Giant". Partly because people outside Norway find pronouncing his name difficult, partly due to him being 191 cm tall, and not at all due to .. other body measurements (no naughty interpretation!!!). He would of course prefer "Gentle Giant".

What is this HL7 thing, actually ? It suddenly reminds me of N7 …
Edit : Found Wikipedia article on it …

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I think there's only one answer to that and it's fairly obvious. Pibbur is a time traveller and he's talking about Half-Life 7, which apparently has significant role-playing elements. We'll have to try and trick him into telling us when the release date is—it's either that or wait for the teasers to start popping up on Steam. I should probably get started on my optimized Living Subject Entity character build.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Let's Get to Work / / Detroit Red Wings: Welcome, Coach Blash!

Originally Posted by dteowner
I think there's only one answer to that and it's fairly obvious. Pibbur is a time traveller and he's talking about Half-Life 7, which apparently has significant role-playing elements. We'll have to try and trick him into telling us when the release date is—it's either that or wait for the teasers to start popping up on Steam. I should probably get started on my optimized Living Subject Entity character build.

Now that was a good explanation. It's wrong, of course. But a really good explanation it was, so I think I'll stick to that.

pibbur who notices it was freezing in San Antonio last night. Apparently highways were closed and people were all late for work. Shops opened at 12.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
pibbur who notices it was freezing in San Antonio last night. Apparently highways were closed and people were all late for work. Shops opened at 12.

This was posted the other day in the SWTOR forums :

Livestream - 1/24 Cancelled | 01.24.2014, 05:41 PM
Hey folks,

We had a really strange occurrence today, Texas actually got hit by something resembling winter. It is not at all like the winter I am used to from Pennsylvania, but certainly enough to create some problems. Due to the weather we will be postponing this weeks livestream.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

… thursday and pibbur is on the road again. Well. Actually he's on the rails again, and compared to his latest travels he's not going very far. Just across Norway from west, destination Oslo, a city of minor importance in the eastern part of the country. But it's there that Dream Theater has chosen to perform on friday, and since pibbur has chosen to attend this particular performance, he has also chosen to go to Oslo.

For some reason, nothing happened to Roman emperors on this particular day. Nobody rose to power, nobody died of natural (assasination) or unnatural (disease, old age…) causes. If we are to trust Wikipedia. Who actually claims that nothing at all worth mentioning took place until …

1339 when the Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries united in battle against each other at Parabiago@Italy. Details of the event is somewhat chaotic, so it's not entirely clear to me who pwnd who.

Other events:
1472: Denmark and Norway gave away Orkney and Shetland toghether with Spouse-wannabe Margaret to King of Scotland. Apparently her father (King of Denmark/Norway) agreed to pay a hefty amount of money (dowry) to get rid of her. But being a bit short of cash, he offered said isles in stead. This year our constitution is 200 years old, and I suggest we celebrate by inviting back these and all the other territories we've lost throughout history: Bohuslen, Jemtland, Herjedalen, Greenland, Iceland, parts of the UK, parts of continental Europe and parts of the Americas.

1685: France claims Texas, in the long term quite unsuccessfully which I'm sure a lot texans appreciate - no room for freedom fries if they succeeded.

1816: A barber goes into action in Sevilla.
1877: Swans go into acction in Moscow.
1913: The australian king, O'Malley, starts work on Canberra.-
1933: The end of the american drought.
1952: What's an umpire?
1962: John Glenn sets an american around the earth speed record: 1.38.20

1998: Tara Lipinski(15) becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano.

… saturday and the day after pibbur attended a Dream Theater concert. It was a "Evening with Dream Theater" show, so they were the only band playing, and the consert lasted for 3 hours. The material was mostly from "Dream Theater", "A Dramatic Turn of Events", "Awake" and "Scenes from a Memory". They sounded heavier than on the albums, which I like. The band seemed very fresh. Lots of humour as well - for instance in the 15 minute mid-concert break they showed a series of youtube videos with covers of DT songs, parodies of the band and its members:

1495: Charles VIII of France becomes Charles something of Naples. Pope Alexander IV, father of the Borgia sieblings (the Clostridiae of Italian nobility according to pibbur), wasn't entirely happy with this, and said Charles' carreer as Italian king didn't last more than a couple of months. 3 years later said Charles died after accidentally striking the intel of a door with his head. Being 191 cm, this worries pibbur a bit.

1909: Great White Fleet (which is not a fleet of Great Whites) returns to the US after slightly more than 80 days circumnavigating the word.